“First, solve the problem. Then, write the code.”

“Walking on water and developing software name a specification are easy if both are frozen.”

“Some people, when confronted with a problem, think "I know, I’ll use regular expressions." Now they have two problems.”

“There are only two kinds of languages: the ones people complain about and the ones nobody uses.”

“If debugging is the process of removing software bugs, then programming must be the process of putting them in.”

“A happy programmer is a productive programmer. That's why we optimize for happiness and you should too. Don't just pick tools and practices based on industry standards or performance metrics. Look at the intangibles: Is there passion, pride, and craftmanship here? Would you truly be happy working in this environment eight hours a day?”

“Rules of Optimization: Rule 1: Don't do it. Rule 2 (for experts only): Don't do it yet.”

“There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.”